The first half was very fast and saw an abundance of counter-attacking from both sides. The lone goal of the opening half came from the Aviators, who made sure that a power play chance due to a PJ Vargas blue card was not wasted. On the free kick following the blue card foul, the Aviators fired a shot that was initially saved by Aaron Anderson but Momo Drammeh made the finish on the backdoor to put the Aviators up 1-0.